Early Monday, Silvy quietly slipped in the back door from the alley and walked down the hallway to his office. Bull Crawley looked up from his computer. The forty-year-old bald head, along with the six-foot tall, double-wide frame made him look like a washed up pro wrestler. “Morning, Honeysuckle.” Silvy was not fond of the [...]

The auditorium of Corey Acres Baptist Church was packed on this cool, crisp Sunday morning. Ginger hadn’t seen some of these faces in church since last Easter. Their little town had been sobered by the murder of Navy Newcomb, making it a little harder to sleep in on the Lord’s Day. Ginger was sitting in [...]

Ginger was sitting in the living room in her robe with the Saturday edition of the Coreyville Courier in one hand and a pencil in the other. It was nearly her bedtime, but she was determined to get the crossword puzzle finished. In tomorrow’s paper there would be another one, and she hated to fall [...]

Cash and Carry Donuts was a very popular shop, sitting just around the corner from town square. Cash Crawley, 34, was determined to make his business more successful than his older brother’s restaurant, Bull Crawley’s Bar and Grill. Bull had the advantage of a prime location on The Square. Plus, Bull’s full-service restaurant could pull [...]

Lacey had slept for nearly three hours after making love to Danny. She didn’t know how long he had been awake or what he had been doing. But now he wanted to drive down to Longview and party at his favorite dance club. Lacey would have preferred to sleep until morning. But she wanted to [...]

“You’re way over the speed limit.” Ginger glared at Chief Foenapper. He glanced to the right and caught a glimpse of her steely eyes in the light of an oncoming car. “Afraid I’ll get a ticket? Not gonna happen in this car.” If it hadn’t been for the seat belt restraining her, she would have [...]

The Domino Girls Club met every Tuesday and Saturday night, around the oak table in Ginger’s breakfast nook. Their potluck dinners were made up of whatever each woman had cooked that day, plus a pan of hot, buttery rolls and a never-ending supply of iced tea. Usually Ginger provided dessert. The meal would be followed [...]

Coreyville Coffee Cakes was open Monday through Saturday, 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Most of the customers came early in the morning or for a coffee break at around 10:00 a.m. or 2:00 p.m. Ginger had learned through trial and error that staying open past 3:30 was not profitable. This particular Saturday had been filled [...]

Ginger walked into the living room and sat down in her favorite old rocking chair with a hot cup of green tea. Drinking it from her fine china always made it taste better somehow. People tend to save the good china for special occasions—like Thanksgiving and Christmas. But Ginger had decided some years ago that [...]

Daniel Foenapper sat down at his desk. The twin gold-plated pens stood at attention on their marble base at the sides of the little clock. It had been a thoughtful gift from his mother in celebration of his promotion to Chief of Police. Nine-fifteen. Had it really only been ninety minutes ago that he got [...]